December 2010

2010 has been a really good year for us.  Last December we had pretty much decided to give up on our dream of adoption.  El Salvador was not placing children and there didn't seem to be any other options for us.  Then a friend of a friend recommended we check into China Special Needs adoptions and Bay Area Adoption Services.  She told us she was confident we'd have a daughter by the end of 2010.  I was a little skeptical (sorry Misty), but researched it and prayed a lot.  Early January 2010 we decided to switch to China.  We actually brought our wonderful daughter home in August.  We will always be grateful for all of you who have supported us in so many ways.
Christmas was a fun day.  The boys woke up at 7 and came into our room.  LiLi was still sleeping.  I told the boys that they could go down and open their stockings, but they didn't want to.  They wanted to wake for their sister to wake up.  Andrew said the best part of Christmas was having a sister. (So Sweet!.  She has the best big brothers.)  We woke up LiLi and went downstairs to open stockings and presents.
Later that morning we went over to my parents' house where my sister and family were.  It was a little crazy over there with all the kids, but they all had fun.  LiLi loves opening presents.  She doesn't care whose presents they are.  She just loves to open them.  After lunch we had the birthday party for Jesus, Jakob & Grandpa.  It's hard to believe Jakob is 10 now.  He seems so much more grown-up than last year.  Of course there were more presents to open.  I think LiLi opened all of them for Jakob & Grandpa.,  When they were all open, she did her sign language for 'more', but fortunately that was it.
LiLi also had a great time playing with her Aunt Kim and cousins, but she especially laughed a lot with her crazy Uncle Ryan.
We have now decided to meet a surgeon in New York for LiLi's surgery.  He is one of the best in the country and has performed this type of surgery many times.  We meet with him on January 11th and then we'll schedule surgery from there.  Hopefully we'll be able to schedule it late January or February.
We hope you all have a great 2011!
Trisha

Baking with Jakob

LiLi, Joseph, Trinity & Andrew

Christmas Eve with Cousin Trinity

Uncle Ryan

Relaxing with her brothers on New Year's Eve

November 2010

LiLi is continuing to show her personality.  She loves to play anywhere, anytime.  She used to just sit with me at the park when other kids were around, but now she's right out there with them and she's not scared at all.  She loves to swing as high as she can, she loves any slide and Kraig hangs her upside down on the monkey bars and she loves it (of course he's still holding her.)  She's such a happy girl and it's so much fun playing with her.  We just love seeing her smile and laugh.

She was able to meet a lot more of her family this month.  She's now met all of our brother and sisters, but hasn't met all their spouses or her cousins yet.  We went up the Nebraska for Thanksgiving and she did great there.  She slept well and wasn't intimidated by all the people around, even Aunt Lori.

We took her to our pediatrician for a check up after we got back from China.  She does have a condition called 'Right Coronal Craniosynostosis'.  That's where the right side of her skull fused too soon.  That has caused the right side of her forehead to be sunken back a little and her eyes to be misaligned.  We'll probably need to do surgery to correct her forehead and eye orbits, but we're still working all of that out.  We've seen a neurosurgeon and a plastic surgeon and now need to decided to best route to go.  We'll keep you updated.

Here are some pictures:

In the treehouse with Aunt Linda and Jakob

First Thanksgiving at Grandma & Grandpa J's house

Playing pool at Grandma & Grandpa K's house

Swinging with her cousins

October 2010

October has been a pretty good month.  Maria (LiLi) has been to the petting zoo (Deanna Rose), the KC Zoo, pumpkin patch, corn maze and trick-or-treating.  She also was able to meet her Aunt Kim and her cousins, Joseph and Trinity. Grandmas and Grandpas have enjoyed plenty of time with her also.
  It's just so great to see her personality come out more and more each day.  She is starting to get a little stubborn though.  She gets the saddest little face and starts to cry if she doesn't want to do something or if she wants to do something and we don't let her.  I'll have to admit that I've changed my plans a few times to keep her from crying.  I would never do that with the boys, but I feel that she's probably never been able to get her way so, I will give in to her some.  It won't always be like that.  She still continues to take my hand and pull me around all day long.  She is a busy little girl.  She loves to go outside and play on the swingset and also in her little car.
  She pretty much understands everything we say.  She's not really talking yet.  She does say a few words including mama, but she pretty much calls anyone mama, even Kraig.  She will say GeGe (brother) to the boys and they love it.
She's just such a happy little girl and we are so happy and thank God everyday for her.  Here are some pictures of her (the dark headed kids are her cousins) and also one of Andrew the 3rd grade musical.

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Pictures!!

Home with Maria for 2 weeks

Quick post just to let you all know that things are still going very well.

There has been tremendous changes is Maria these first two weeks since we've been home.  From the previous post, you know that it only took a few days here to start smiling regularly with little giggles here and there. Now, though, she is smiling all the time with lots of laughter (sometimes for very unknown reasons).

She used to be very shy and would just stand in one place like she didn't know what to do with her newfound freedom. But now she never sits still. She grabs our hand and pulls us around to wherever she wants to go. She went from no maintenance to high maintenance in about a week.  She goes through the same sequence of events over and over again. She goes up and down the stairs for no reason at all over and over.

She's gone from being very quiet and unresponsive to now jabbering out some baby talk. Not bad for two weeks. My hopes are that in another two weeks or so, we'll start to get some real words that mean something and have a purpose.

After about a week of the 3 of us not sleeping very well in our bed, we started grasping at straws as to why Maria was having such a hard time at night. It turns out the solution was to put her in her own bed so she could have more space. She practically dove into it when we introduced her to it. It is right next to the bed on Trisha's side. So glad that worked out. One week of a kid in the bed is one week too many for me. Not. A. Fan.

Someday soon, more pictures will be forthcoming. The battery is recharging. And I'm too tired right now. So there. Take my word for it, she's really really cute.

Kraig

At home

Maria seems to be adjusting really well.  She's still pretty shy and not really sure what she can do sometimes.  She still hasn't said anything, but is smiling and laughing a lot more.  She likes to follow the cats and loves to walk around outside.  She likes playing outside on the slide the most, but I can only do that for a little while because my arms get sore helping her up and down the slide.

I just to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have supported us along this incredible journey.  We really appreciate all your support, especially your prayers.  We can now really see how God has lead us through this whole process.

We have got the most awesome friends and family.  When we got home Saturday night  Maria's room was all painted and decorated.  Kraig and I tried to decorate her room before we left, but it wasn't looking very good.  A couple of our friends came in while we were gone and fixed our mistakes and then started over.  It looks really great!  We also had a friend bring over some food for our fridge and some snacks for the kids.  We really didn't feel like going to store when we got back so, we've really relied on the sandwiches and snacks.  It's also been great food for the boys'  lunches.  A friend called and brought over dinner last night.  On Tuesday another friend from church called and has setup meals for us the next couple weeks.  My mom cleaned our house while we were gone, even the oven!  Our neighbors have also been great taking care of things while we were gone and welcoming us when we got home. We are so blessed and thankful to have such a great support system.

Here are some more pics:

At home

Thanks, Hannah & Gretchen

At the airport and on the airplane